This Week in Movie News (Nerd News)

I'd just like to highlight a few interesting stories from this past week:

- The IRON MAN 2 reviews are rolling in and they aren't great. The first film currently holds an impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, with only 15 negative reviews. With less than 50 total reviews, the sequel already has 12 'rotten' ones. The film still holds a mediocre 74%, but even the 'fresh' reviews aren't overly positive. A vast majority of them feature some sort of admission of the first film's superiority. This is very disappointing. There's a chance that the total percentage could turn around significantly (in either direction), but the ratio of good to bad reviews usually holds steady by this point. The trailers really make this seem like an awesome film. I'm not going to let the bad reviews effect my view of the it. I'm still very excited to see the movie, but I'll be greatly disappointed if my expectations aren't met. I guess I'll just have to wait until next Friday to see for myself.

Side note: I'm starting to get pissed off by how much IRON MAN 2 is selling out. All the Burger King and car commercials featuring the character are very irritating. This, more than anything, will effect how I perceive the film.

- The third installment in Nolan's Batman trilogy has a release date: July 20, 2012. There isn't a whole lot of information about the project yet, but pinning down a release date just means that those details are imminent. Nolan is apparently working out the story right now that would provide his series and the Batman character with some closure. This sounds very interesting and I can't wait to see what this film will be about. If he intends to upstage THE DARK KNIGHT, he must have something fantastic in mind.

Many of the commentators who broke this news were quick to point out what a nerdy year 2012 is turning out to be. The STAR TREK sequel (which I'm equally excited for) has a tentative release date of June 29. THE AVENGERS (if all goes as planned) will come out May 4th of that year. Other 'big' films mentioned alongside these are BATTLESHIP (May 25th) and the Spider-Man reboot (July 3rd). I know I'm being petty as I'm really just critiquing the journalists who broke the news, but I don't think either of these films deserves to be mentioned in the company of the other three. Is the BATTLESHIP film really going to be that big of a hit? I don't think kids even play Battleship anymore. And the Spider-Man reboot - I know it's early, but I have very little faith in this project. Marc Webb, an unproven director as far as big-budget films, is at the helm and all early reports indicate that the little tweener from PERCY JACKSON is likely to play the web-slinger himself. I don't love the character or the Raimi film trilogy that much, but I feel as though Webb won't be able to improve on anything that Raimi accomplished. We've already seen the origin story, I have no interest in going back there and putting Peter Parker in high school. It's just a feeling I have, but I tend to be wrong about these things.

News also broke recently that the much-anticipated adaptation of Tolkien's "The Hobbit" is being delayed until 2013. This is a huge letdown as this film would have likely been the icing on the proverbial nerd-cake (a D&D or BSG themed cake no doubt) in 2012. I don't care when it comes out, I just hope it still gets made.

- KICK-ASS director Matthew Vaughn has been offered X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. I don't know how to feel about this. I have faith in Vaughn as a director, but not in this project. I'm a bit of an ageist, but I'm not interested in seeing the X-Men as kids. It just seems as though Fox intends to pander to a teenage audience. I hated this even when I was a teen. If they want to make a serious film, that's fine, but It'll be a hard sell when they fill it up with a bunch of unpolished unknown kid actors. The only thing keeping me from writing the film off completely is knowing that Bryan Singer is involved in some capacity. Singer did a great job with the first two X-Men films (especially X2), but when he left everything went downhill. X MEN: THE LAST STAND was terrible and the WOLVERINE film was even worse. I'm hoping this film gets called off altogether, but if it does get made, I'll be interested to see where it stacks up.

- Lastly, if you're looking for something to do when you're bored, I suggest you travel on over to Rotten Tomatoes and check out the FURRY VENGEANCE reviews. They are hilarious! The movie is currently sitting on an embarrassing 2% with only one positive review in nearly fifty. HA!